I've only had to buy it in three states, but generally my experience has been that you can buy a "30 day supply" per month. How often are you sick that you need more than 30 days of the stuff every month? If we run out I'll buy a 30 day supply and that generally lasts the whole family a year or more.
You definitely don't have anyone in your family who gets severe congestion from allergies then. The "funnest" form it takes for me is when I start going partially blind in one eye due the the sinus pressure
I could do it with less effort and cost than OTC. Online message my PCP, prescription sent to pharmacy, mailed to me at my house, cost $0 since it's just a generic. And I have a cheap as shit high deductible plan with a steep out of pocket maximum, not some cadillac plan.
OTC would be faster, but if I have a chronic need for large amounts of pseudoephedrine I'm not waiting until it hurts before I run to the store. I'm getting my doc to make sure I have a hell of a good stash (and I checked, just to be sure -- the limits don't exist if it's prescription; at least not in Oregon, which is famously restrictive on pseudoephedrine).
Would it be better to relax the restrictions that now seem pointless on the OTC version? Yep. But if someone is bitching on HN about how they can barely get what they desperately need, I'd say it's time to stop being idealistic and go get the damn drugs already.
> Unfortunately there is an absurdly low limit on purchasing amount in the US.
The maximum safe dose for an adult is 240 mg in a 24 hour period. Current guidelines allow for getting a 10 day supply (the average cold lasts 7-10 days) in a single visit, and basically a limitless supply with a few visits (37 days worth every 30 days).
If you are running into purchasing limits, you are either making meth or blowing out your liver.
Edit: Math is hard. The 30 day limit is 7.5 grams (a 31 day supply), or 3.6 grams per trip (a 15 day supply).
I seem to only be able to buy 10 days of Sudafed 24 Hour every 14 days. That doesn't work if you have allergies.
Presumably because places like Walgreen's can't adjust compliance per state and places like Alaska have "No person may purchase or possess more than 6 g of PSE, EPH or PPA per 30 days unless dispensed pursuant to a prescription"
Note that 6g / .240g = 25. So I can only buy 25 days worth of pills every 30 days. Or 12.5 pills every 15 days which is suspiciously close to that 10 every 14 days number.
Aren’t there better things to take longer term for allergies? Pseudoephedrine is amazing for colds etc. but I’ve always seen warnings not to take it for more than a few days at a time…
What's 10 days/4 people? like... a family that lives together? Who will almost inevitably get each other sick? If the average cold lasts 7-10 days, one of them's going shopping for more while sick.
Sounds like great public health and safety policy there.
In addition, I can't seem to find the 24 hour versions anywhere right now. I could probably buy meth more conveniently. :(
Cue: "A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From N-Methylamphetamine" https://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume19/v19i3/Pse...